Illusory (Sudden Update!)

A thunderous crash slammed into his skull like a club swung with brutal force.

His mind was suddenly unleashed, his mental world violently stuffed with vast, chaotic information. The energy swelled, filled his entire brain, then detonated.

A sharp plunge seized him!

The weightlessness of falling from ten thousand meters crashed down on President X. Every sense spun out of control as the jumbled voices in his head gradually fell "silent."

President X couldn't remember the last time he'd known such stillness. He only recalled that after accidentally probing his gardener's mind, all sorts of voices had inexplicably arisen in his head.

Those voices were like the murmurs of sleepers—utterly without logic. But slowly, gradually, President X could clearly sense "them" awakening, learning, spreading, polluting his mind!

Yet he had no way to stop it. He wanted to fight back, he tried to fight back, but he failed. From the moment he crushed the first attacker's brain with his psychic power, everything spiraled beyond control.

Just like now.

Those memories—pitiful, unhinged, terrifying, the ones that made it painful to breathe—surged up, trying to cloud his reason and hollow out his mind.

President X's eyes flew wide as he silently resisted. He couldn't understand how this insignificant human dared defy "his" will, even removing the helmet that protected his mind right before him.

But when President X actually touched that mind, the ferocious psychic force that slammed into him made "President X" lose consciousness in an instant. By the time "he" tried to fight back, it was too late.

"No!"

President X didn't open his mouth, but a deafening roar echoed in his ears. The voice reverberated, speaking in every language on Earth, and soon became the only sound in President X's mind.

The moment their psychic forces touched, a connection formed. No matter how frantically President X tried to withdraw his telepathy, it was useless. The other's mental world was like a black hole, sucking in all information that dared invade.

President X felt as if he were being dragged by an immense gravitational force, or tied to a speeding roller coaster. Soon, the coaster plunged into a tunnel, surrounded by darkness and depth.

President X didn't know how long the tunnel was, or where it ended.

He only knew that the things that had plagued him, kept him from sleep, and wrapped around him like thick mud, were being peeled away from his mind bit by bit.

Then, President X suddenly felt solid pressure against his back—a seat back.

His lost body revived. Control returned to him. President X gasped for air, but when he looked up, a massive screen loomed before him.

Dazed, President X was bewildered. He opened his mouth to speak but no sound came. He glanced around and found himself sitting in an old-fashioned cinema.

Many "people" sat scattered in seats like him. President X wasn't sure they were really "people"—those humanoid figures had no facial features. Their faces were as blank as paper, without even wrinkles or pores.

Some were male, some female, dressed in all kinds of clothes. They sat motionless, like mannequins deliberately placed there, utterly eerie.

Though they had no features, Professor X could feel they were all "watching" him. Not through eyes, but a higher form of scrutiny—on a psychic level.

In such a silent environment, it was grotesquely unsettling.

Just as President X was about to be overwhelmed by unease, light flared behind him. He turned his gaze back and saw the big screen behind him had lit up. He sat alone in the center of the front row.

Static flickered, then turned pure white. The surroundings dimmed. President X didn't understand what was happening, but he knew the movie had begun.

A young, handsome man appeared on the screen. Across from him sat a Federal Investigator.

Though it was his first time seeing that person, President X somehow knew that handsome young man was himself—even if he looked nothing like him.

But President X knew: that was him.

"Hank modified this radar device into a transmitter that can amplify brainwaves, enhancing your telepathic ability to help us find more mutants," the screen played, audio carrying the words.

"I thought you'd already found them," a man suddenly walked in. "If a new species is discovered, it should be by its own kind. Charles and I will find the New Mutants, not you humans."

President X slowly opened his mouth, as if trying to speak a name, but he couldn't. He knew he should say it, but no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn't remember what that name was.

"First, that machine is ours. Second, it was Charles's decision. Charles doesn't mind the CIA's involvement, right, Charles?"

"No." President X and the man on screen spoke in unison.

"I'm sorry, but I agree with Erik. We should find them, not humans," the man on screen said calmly.

"And if we disagree?"

"Then good luck using that device without me."

It felt like a second passed, or a single breath. President X felt as if he'd passed through an invisible barrier. A grand vision, enough to burst his brain, flooded his mind and poured into his psychic domain.

It shouldn't have been like this.

Everything was wrong.

When did it start?

Before all this happened, when did history veer off course?

Countless flashing images, smiling faces that had trusted and respected him—President X stared in shock. He didn't notice the cinema had vanished, everything around him dissolving into endless phantoms and sounds.

"Raven."

President X murmured softly, like a dying old man's last groan from a sickbed. But the voice came from a young woman in the prime of her youth.

Zhang Ye calmly watched the Scarlet Witch, now possessed by President X.

He pulled out his pistol—the same model used to shoot Nick Fury—raised it slowly, aimed at the woman before him, and asked.

"What did you see?"

The Scarlet Witch's eyes were lost in a trance. Layers of flashing images reflected in her pupils, but only she could see them—a phantom world as illusory as a dream.

After a moment, her crimson lips moved.

"I saw I was happy."

The next second, Zhang Ye pulled the trigger.